First, I’m excited about the opportunity to have a huge impact on how progressive activists (and political candidates! and companies!) communicate and organize online. Facebook has become a huge communications channel, but until now, the tools for organizing people in meaningful ways there have been pretty limited: you can “Like,” “Share,” and “Comment.” That’s about it. But with ActionSprout, organizations can take advantage of Facebook’s Open Graph to create all kinds of new action posts (e.g. “Stand with…” “Support…” “Stop…” “Donate…”) that are far more meaningful and engaging. And did I mention that we can let groups take online donations directly inside of Facebook? So far as I know, we’re the only tool that makes that possible right now! I think we’re going to upend the conventional wisdom that “you can’t raise money on Facebook.”

We’ve already thought of a thousand ways to use ActionSprout, and I can’t wait to see the creative things that all our smart friends and allies are going to come up with!

Second, I’m exciting to be working with Drew and Shawn. They’re fearsomely fast and creative visionaries. I’m stoked to be able to help them paint boldly on a wide-open canvas.

Third, I’m excited to be working for a startup. I’ve long been nursing an entrepreneurial itch, and ActionSprout feels like the perfect way to scratch it: innovative, social-mission driven and with nonprofits as the primary customers. What’s more, Drew and Shawn are both successful startup veterans, and so I have two amazing mentors as my colleagues.

I’ve still got two quarters of grad school remaining, so I’ll be part-time from now until June, then ramping up from there. I’m going to initially focus on helping our early customers get up and running, building out a partner program for strategy, campaign and social media consultants and getting done what needs doing.

If you’re interested in finding out more about ActionSprout, drop me a line and I’ll give you a tour, or even better, just head on over there and check it out yourself. There’s a short video, some case studies, and best of all, you can test drive it for free.